8 episodes
Letters to Italy Sara Marinelli
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- Society & Culture
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4.9 • 18 Ratings
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Letters to Italy by Sara Marinelli is an eighth-part series about the impact of Covid-19 on Italian immigrants in the Bay Area. How did Italian expats feel when they received news of their country being the epicenter of the pandemic in the Western world, and how did it affect their distant relationship to home? At the intersection of personal memoir and documentary, each episode features conversations with an Italian expat to hear how the pandemic reshaped their life in the U.S., and how they tried to remain connected to Italy in a time of crisis and forced separation. Conversations bring up questions of belonging, resilience, community, and how to transform challenges into possibilities.
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Ep. 1 - Sara Marinelli, Writer & Radio-producer - My letters to Italy
Writer and radio producer Sara Marinelli introduces the series by sharing some of her Letters to Italy that she has been writing since the onset of the pandemic.
Through a collage of voice-memos, phone calls, radio news, journal entries, and music recorded on Italian balconies, Sara explores her sense of belonging and ways to connect from afar with the country she left fourteen years ago.
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Since recording this episode, Italy’s vaccination plan has sped up. 13% of the population has received the anti Covid-19 vaccine, as of early May 2021.
Episode notes
Writer/ Producer/Editor: Sara Marinelli
Mixing consultant: Rebecca Seidel
Sound design: Sara Marinelli
Intro and outro music: “Hopeful Motivation” - James Yan
Music bed: “Passage IV” (remix) - Laura Inserra
Website: https://podcast.saramarinelli.com
Website for Sara Marinelli: www.saramarinelli.com
Website for Italian Frequency radio show: www.kxsf.fm
Social:
IG: @saramarinelli1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sara.marinelli.92/
This series was made possible thanks to the support of COMITES of San Francisco and the Italian Consulate of San Francisco, with funding from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
I'd like to thank: the Hershowitz family, Elisabetta Ghisini, Whit Missildine, Mia Warren. -
Ep. 2 - Valentina Imbeni, Founder and Head of La Scuola
The second episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Valentina Imbeni, founder and head of La Scuola International, an Italian-American school in San Francisco fostering the Reggio Emilia's approach to education. Valentina grew up in Bologna, and has lived in the Bay Area for twenty years.
La Scuola is one of the few schools in San Francisco that offered in-person classes after the first wave of the pandemic. Valentina shares the challenges and efforts to keep the school open, and recounts of her connection to Italy during the peak of the crisis.
Episode notes
Producer/Editor: Sara Marinelli
Mixing consultant: Rebecca Seidel
Sound design: Sara Marinelli
Intro and outro music: “Hopeful Motivation” - James Yan
Website: https://podcast.saramarinelli.com
Website for Sara Marinelli: www.saramarinelli.com
Website for La Scuola: www.lascuolasf.org
This series was made possible thanks to the support of COMITES of San Francisco and the Italian Consulate of San Francisco, with funding from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. -
Ep. 3 - Lucina Di Meco, Women's Rights Advocate
The third episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Lucina Di Meco, gender expert and women’s rights advocate. She is the author of #ShePersisted. Women, Politics & Power in the New Media World, and serves as the Senior Director of Girls’ Education & Gender Equality at "Room to Read." She grew up in Liguria, and has lived in the USA since 2007, and in the Bay Area for the last five years.
While in Episode 2, Valentina Imbeni told us about the efforts to keep a local school open during the pandemic, Lucina Di Meco speaks about the challenges of an international nonprofit in pursuing its mission to promote gender equality in the Global South at a time of crisis.
Lucina also ponders her relationship to Italy, her sense of belonging, and how she turned a difficult moment into an opportunity to further alliances in her work as a researcher and advocate for women’s political leadership.
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Episode notes
Producer/Editor: Sara Marinelli
Sound design: Sara Marinelli
Intro and outro music: “Hopeful Motivation” - James Yan
Website for Sara Marinelli: www.saramarinelli.com
Website for Room to Read: www.roomtoread.org
Website for Lucina Di Meco: www.she-persisted.org
This series was made possible thanks to the support of COMITES of San Francisco and the Italian Consulate of San Francisco, with funding from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. -
Ep. 4 - Lorenzo Ortona, Consul General of Italy in San Francisco
The fourth episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Lorenzo Ortona, Consul General of Italy in San Francisco.
Lorenzo Ortona recalls some of the most difficult moments the Italian diaspora on the West Coast went through when Italy was first hit by the pandemic, as well as the challenges that he and his team faced in support of the community.
As Lorenzo's mandate is set to end this June, he also considers some of the highlights of five years in office in the vast Consulate’s jurisdiction, and the legacy he leaves to the people he served and with whom he established strong and long-lasting relationships.
His is not only a letter to Italy, but also a message goodbye to the Italian community here.
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Episode notes
In expressing his gratitude toward all the people who have supported him in many endeveaors during his tenure, Lorenzo Ortona would like to remember his friend Jeff Capaccio, founderand chairman of SVIEC, Silicon Valley Italian Executive Council, who passed away suddenly in March 2021.
Producer/Editor: Sara Marinelli
Intro and outro music: “Hopeful Motivation” - James Yan
Website for Sara Marinelli: www.saramarinelli.com
Website for the Italian Consulate of San Francisco: www.conssanfrancisco.esteri.it
This series was made possible thanks to the support of COMITES of San Francisco and the Italian Consulate of San Francisco, with funding from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. -
Ep. 5 - Angelo Greco, Principal Dancer at SF Ballet
The fifth episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Angelo Greco, principal dancer at San Francisco Ballet.
Angelo tells the story of how from the prestigious Opera theater of La Scala in Milano, he relocated to San Francisco in order to perform every night.
Until everything changed.
When the world of performing arts came to a standstill because of Covid, the 2020 SF Ballet season was cancelled, and the current one was produced in an empty theater.
Angelo shares how he felt during the months of lockdown, being deprived of the stage, which, as he says, “sets him free." He also talks about his relationship to dance and art, the power to dream and his yearning to create.
In recalling the hardest moments of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy, he reflects on his relationship to home and his sense of belonging.
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Episode notes
Producer/Editor: Sara Marinelli
Sound design: Sara Marinelli
Intro and outro music: “Hopeful Motivation” - James Yan
Music from the film "Icarus" by Pietro Pinto - Fabio Vassallo
Website for SF Ballet: www.sfballet.org
Website for Sara Marinelli: www.saramarinelli.com
IG: @saramarinelli1
This series was made possible thanks to the support of COMITES of San Francisco and the Italian Consulate of San Francisco, with funding from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. -
Ep. 6 - Laura Inserra, Composer and Musician
The sixth episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Laura Inserra, world-renown hang musician, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.
Laura tells the story of how from the restrictions of her Sicilian background, she moved to the Bay Area in 2006 to experiment with new professional possibilities in music and technology.
Unable to perform, teach, and produce music events during the pandemic, Laura did live streams of what she describes as sound journeys - called "Shelter in Music.”
Laura conceived the sound journeys as her way to support her family in Sicily by teaching them to use music as a shelter during the strict lockdown in Italy.
She shares the moving story of how from her fear to be judged and misunderstood by her traditional Sicilian family seeing her play many unconventional instruments, she instead discovered and established a deeper connection with her family like she had never done before.
Bonuses of this episode***: Laura Inserra’s music; the sound of her several instruments, and of a lovely and lively Easter dinner in Sicily with her family members.
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Episode notes
Producer/Editor: Sara Marinelli
Sound design: Sara Marinelli
Intro and outro music: “Hopeful Motivation” - James Yan
Tracks by Laura Inserra: "Serendipity", "Dedication," "Eternal Wisdom".
Excerpt from "Shelter in Music."
Website for Laura Inserra: www.laurainserra.com
Website for Sara Marinelli: www.saramarinelli.com
IG: @saramarinelli1
This series was made possible thanks to the support of COMITES of San Francisco and the Italian Consulate of San Francisco, with funding from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Customer Reviews
Beautiful, poetic, important
Sara Marinelli narrates and edits this program beautifully. It’s an important and deeply poignant document of a time. There is poetry in here and that is because Sara is a writer and artist. She brings heart and soul out of the guests and we are fortunate to listen in and learn about the expat Italian experience of living in the US at a time when Italy is tearing at their hearts. Such a great series coming out of the pandemic. Highly recommend!
What I needed
As an american who moved to Europe ten years ago I need stories of how those oceans away from their loved ones navigated and continue to navigate the separation this pandemic has necessitated. This first episode set the stage. This podcast is brilliantly engineered, engaging, calm and made me feel less alone. I cannot wait for future episodes.